With the Help of Man's Best Friend
by Free Angel
Summary: The power of love is strong, especially in the most loyal of human companions. Squall teams up with Angelo in the search for Rinoa's love. Cute one shot. R&R.


**A/N: Okay before I even begin this, yes I know Angelo is actually a female, not a male, but I believe that it fits a little better this way. Don't beat me up on this please, enjoy.**

She stood smiling; watching the puppy roll around on the floor. Angelo is his name, his fuzzy brown ears flop around adorably as he tries to fit the whole ball in his mouth and carry it over to her. He keeps dropping it, but he doesn't give up, he continues to try to carry the ball to Rinoa. She giggles quietly, moving to pick up the ball. He gets smart before she gets to him; he picks the ball up by the zipper to the pouch that contains his treat. Rinoa laughs at the sight, a puppy carrying a ball half his size. She reaches down slowly to take the ball from Angelo's mouth.

"Good Boy," she says sweetly, "here."

She opens the ball's pouch and hands him his treat, a peanut butter puppy treat. She sits next to the munching puppy.

"One day, Angelo…" The puppy looks at her, "You're going to be so big and strong, you're going to be able to help me much, you're going to change my life."

She looks down at the 10-week-old pup; he looks back at her, a huge smile on his face with his head cocked to the side. She can't help but pick him up and give him a big hug.

"You are so adorable!" she squeals happily, "Don't worry you'll understand one day." She rubs her face in the soft puppy fur on his back. He wiggles as she walks over with him to her bed, she puts him up close to the pillows. She lies down next to the pup as he yawns; they both fall asleep quickly.

"Rinoa… Rinoa," He shakes her shoulder gently, she stirs, "Hey, Rinoa get up." His voice is sweet and relaxed. She rolls over to see Squall standing over her. "Hey Rin, it's time to get up." She blinks at him. "What's the matter?"

She shakes her head, "Nothing, just dreaming about Angelo." At his name, Angelo is immediately by her side. She laughs, "Hey there Ange, how are you today?" Angelo barks happily.

"I've already fed him today, so he's in good spirits," responds Squall.

Rinoa smiles at him, "Thanks Squall."

"Sure, come on let's get going," Squall gestures toward the shower, "I need to get out for a while before they find me."

She nods and goes to get ready. Some time passes as she prepares herself for her day out with Squall. 'Where are we going I wonder?' She continues to get ready as she thinks of all the possible places he would want to go. The training center is the only place that she can come up with besides the bar, which he obviously wasn't going to take her there seeing as she doesn't drink. He always goes to the training center, so why would this time be any different, and why would he want to take her? 'Squall is confusing…' She walks out of the room

"You ready Rin?"

He's standing by the door; he seems perfectly casual, from his clothes to the smirk on his face. Then she looks next to him, Angelo is sitting next to him, ready to go, his puppy hood ball in his mouth. Rinoa looks at Squall with a confused expression, "Why is Angelo coming?"

"Trust me, he should come."

"Alright, I'll follow you," she replies, "I'm guessing your not going to tell me where we're going."

Squall shakes his head and opens the door, "But he will."

Angelo dashes out the door, "Squall! Why is he leaving?" Rinoa runs after him, whistling, trying to get Angelo to come back. Squall chases after her.

"Why are you panicking, he listens doesn't he?"

Rinoa stops running, "yeah, but I don't know what's going on."

Squall leans over to her ear and whispers, "look, he's waiting, just relax," he starts walking forward at a steady pace.

Rinoa looks ahead of them, sure enough she can see Angelo looking around the corner, waiting for her to catch up. Rinoa laughs, "Hey goofball, whatcha got planned?"

Squall turns around to reply then notices that Rinoa is talking to Angelo. He smirks at her, "Was that a rhetorical question?"

She blushes a little, "I'm allowed to talk to my dog."

Squall smiles and shakes his head slowly, "are you going to stand there all day, or are you going to let me get caught by Quisitis?"

Rinoa laughs and catches up to Squall. She sees Angelo put the ball down, he barks at them. "We're coming!" she yells playfully. Angelo barks again. "Fine!" Rinoa yells, and then begins to jog toward her beloved pet. Squall keeps pace with her. She finally gets to the end of the long hallway, Angelo picks up his ball and begins to run again, this time Rinoa paces him easily, fully awake and happy. They run for a while, Rinoa's not really paying attention to where they are going. Suddenly she realizes that they are in the parking lot.

"We'll drive from here." He opens the door and lets Angelo jump in, closely followed by Rinoa. He shuts the door and walks to the driver side of the car. They drive for a little while, about ten minutes. "Close your eyes." Rinoa looks at Squall. "Rinoa, close your eyes." She does as she's told. They drive for a few more moments, and eventually Squall stops the car. "Keep your eyes shut." He climbs out of the car and helps Rinoa out and along a gravel path, with Angelo trotting next to her. They stop suddenly and Rinoa almost trips, but Squall catches her, "Okay, you can look now."

Rinoa opens her eyes, "Oh, my!" she gasps. In front of her is a house with a huge yard and an agility course on the side. Rinoa turns to "Squall is this…"

"It's ours, I had it built for us. The agility equipment is for Angelo. He helped me organize it all. He told me exactly what you wanted."

Rinoa smiles at him a moment, "And you thought _I_ was insane for talking to him?" Then she turns to Angelo, "Why didn't you tell me Ange?" He just smiles up at her, she giggles, "I guess you're really good at keeping secrets." She bends over to hug Angelo, and then stands up to face Squall. "Thank you so much, I really don't know what else to say." She jumps into his arms and hugs him tight. She looks up and kisses him passionately while Angelo begins trotting up to the newly built house. The gravel driveway making crunching noises under his feet.

"Angelo wants to show you one more thing."

Rinoa looks at him for a moment, "Should I follow?"

Squall nods. She takes his hand, "Let's go together."

"Whatever." They walk into the fence. As Rinoa looks for Angelo, Squall can't stop smiling. She's looking in the bushes, under the porch, all over the place. "He won't come until he's called," states Squall slyly, "come stand by me." Rinoa moves to stand next to Squall, who shifts to stand in front of her.

Rinoa calls Angelo, but he doesn't come. She calls him again, nothing. She calls him a third time, but when he doesn't come she gives up. Squall whistles suddenly, causing Rinoa to jump. Angelo comes running from around the back of the house, with the ball still in his mouth. He walks up to Squall and places the ball in his hand, then sits on the right side of Rinoa.

Squall looks at the ball for a moment. He holds it zipper up and begins to open the pouch. He reaches his fingers into the pouch and pulls two things out. He hands the ball back to Angelo who places it on the ground so he can receive the treat that Squall is offering next. Angelo lays down to munch on the treat.

Squall holds onto the other item for a moment "Rinoa," he looks at her.

"Yeah Squall?"

He gets down on one knee and gently takes her left hand, "will you marry me?"

Rinoa smiles at him, "Of course I will Squall."

He smiles back at her and slowly slips the ring on her finger. As soon as the ring is securely on her finger, he stands as she jumps into his arms. He swings her around a couple of times, and then places her on her feet so that he can receive the loving kiss that she was attempting to give him before. She hugs him close, never wanting to let go.

Rinoa looks over Squall's shoulder to see Angelo looking on calmly. "Thank you," she mouths to him; he smiles triumphantly. She smiles and buries her face in Squall's shoulder.

**A/N: So what do you think? I'm thinking of writing a sequel, R&R and I'll start planning it out. It may take a different turn from my usual mushy mushy stuff so let me know. Rinoa**


End file.
